Five Miles from Outer Hope — Nicola Barker

Summer, 1981. Medve, sixteen years old and six foot three in her crocheted stockings, is marooned in a semi-derelict hotel on a tiny island off the coast of Devon, England. There's nothing to do but paint novelty mugs, dream of literary murders, and despair of her gothically unprepossessing family -- including Mo, her sex toy-inventing mother; Poodle, her shamefully flat-chested sister; and four-year-old Feely, who wants to grow up to be a bulimic. Until one day a ginger-headed stranger arrives....

One of our most enjoyably unconventional contemporary writers, Nicola Barker, roots out the darkly surreal in a forgotten corner of the world. "Five Miles from Outer Hope" is a startling, luminous book, and Medve's voice speaks bluntly from the heart, with results that are original and poignant.